Sunday, September 9, 2012

REVIEW 153: RAAZ 3 (3D)

There’s reasonable fun to be had
watching Raaz 3 if you don’t think
too much. Sure, there’s a lot about this film that bothers me – stereotypes,
clichés, the works. But first I must confess that the early encounters with the
spirit in the film were genuinely frightening, Bipasha Basu turns in a neat performance
as a devotee of ‘black magic’, the 3D quality is world class* and director
Vikram Bhatt does manage to maintain an eerie atmosphere throughout. Combine
that with pretty sets and Bipasha’s stunning looks, and I suppose it can be
safely stated that Raaz 3 delivers
pretty much what its promos promise – nothing more, nothing less.

The storyline is thinner than
Bips’ waistline so here it is in a sentence: leading film star Shanaya (Bipasha)
ropes in an evil spirit to destroy her rival heroine Sanjana (Esha Gupta), with
the assistance of her director boyfriend Aditya (Emraan Hashmi). Like all films
about the netherworld, it’s a story that requires a suspension of disbelief
from the audience. If you can set your rationalism aside for a couple of hours
in a darkened theatre and/or if, like me, you grew up worrying that there was a
ghost in every commode, then you may buy into the proceedings on screen. There’s
a point in the film – in a cemetery – when Aditya says to Sanjana: “This is
ridiculous, I think we should leave.” If I had not been spooked by then, I
might have quoted that line to make a clever crack here. I won’t though,
because the truth is that I was slightly on edge. The problem with Raaz 3, however, is that it fails to
recognise that it has a good thing going, and so after a nicely scarey first
half, it stretches itself far too much in the latter part of the second half, thus
diluting the overall impact.

Esha – who barely moved a facial
muscle in Jannat 2 – is wisely given
the less demanding role of the two women in Raaz
3, and in thatshe acquits
herself reasonably okay. Of course it defies believability that she could possibly eclipse an actress with
the screen presence of Bipasha in filmdom, but never mind that. It comes as a
relief that though blood flows and a spirit appears before us with his rotting,
maggot-ridden flesh, Raaz 3 has no scenes
that seem designed to induce vomit. Fortunately too, unlike most Bollywood
films of the horror genre in recent years, the background score is not
screechy.

I wish, however, that Vikram
Bhatt had not resorted to so many clichés and stereotypes in his film. Since our
film makers come from the society we live in, I guess it’s asking for too much
to expect Bollywood to give us a career-minded, highly ambitious female
character who is also level-headed, happy and not evil ... So I’ll fight that
battle another day. But here’s one I won’t leave for the future … Shanaya is a
bad girl, Sanjana is a good girl, Shanaya is shown smoking, Sanjana is not. Oh
c’mon!! After the opening scene in a gorgeous red gown, evil Shanaya wears
black almost throughout while sweet innocent Sanjana wears white and other
light or bright colours. Oh c’mon, twice over!! In one encounter at a party
that epitomises Shanaya’s destructive nature, Sanjana is completely unaware of
Shanaya’s malevolent designs – perhaps precisely because of that, gentle Sanjana
is in a soft, flowy white outfit while Shanaya is in a fitted, figure-hugging,
rather more severe black gown. Don’t get me wrong … the women’s bodies and clothes
in the film are b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l. I’m simply protesting against the triteness.

It’s also irritating how the
script glosses over so much when just a little effort could have lent it some depth.
Shanaya and Sanjana’s back stories, for instance, are given extremely superficial
treatment. This laziness in the scripting and the so-so songs are what hold
back Raaz 3 from being more than just
a one-time watch. There’s also the fact that spook films have to be unrelenting
right up to the end to be completely effective. In the second half, this one gave
me too much time to recover from the earlier scares and ponder several
questions: Why was that ghost so darned stupid that he didn’t realise how he
was giving himself away? How come Aditya could see the shattered glass on the
floor of that house but those guests couldn’t see the cockroaches that Sanjana saw? And most of all: Why
the hell didn’t she just cut that dashed thread with scissors?!

Yes yes, I’m being a tease. Don’t
ask for details or you’ll be complaining about spoilers. If you watch the film
and come up with answers, let me know.

Rating
(out of five): **3/4

CBFC Rating (India):

A

Running time:

140 minutes

Footnote: (1) I had
mentioned on Twitter that I watched Raaz
3 twice for this review. The second viewing was not because I “fell off to
sleep the first time round”, as one of you cheekily surmised. No, I watched it
another time because I was very late for the press preview and thought it only
fair that I should see the film in its entirety before writing about it. Though
I’ve called Raaz 3 a “one-time watch”
in my review, I should point out that I did not mind it much the second time.What I
mean though is that I would not have watched it again if duty had not demanded
that I do so. (2)
* In case you are one of those people who always wants to know if the 3D “makes
a difference”, my answer is that I can no longer relate to that question. Why
do we resist new technology? There was probably a time when audiences would ask
“does the sound make a difference?” or “does colour make a difference?” My only
objection is to films that are converted to 3D as an afterthought. Those are
the ones that seem to me to look exactly the same in most scenes whether you
have your glasses on or off. Otherwise, if the glasses are paper-thin (therefore
convenient) and disposable (therefore hygienic) like the ones at Big Cinemas
Odeon in Delhi where I first saw Raaz 3,
I don’t understand why there should be an objection to seeing a film the way we
see the world around us: with a third dimension.

1 comment:

Personally the reason I always ask if a film is worth seeing in 3D is because it costs $3 extra here in the US to watch a film in 3D. I don't see the need to shell out extra if 3D isn't really doing more to enhance the film. I am not sure what the pricing structure is for 3D in India, but I can completely understand people asking you if it makes a difference if it costs more to watch it in 3D, which wouldn't exactly be considered resisting new technology.

About Me

Anna MM Vetticad is an award-winning journalist, journalism teacher and author of the critically acclaimed bestseller The Adventures of an Intrepid Film Critic, an overview of the Hindi film industry presented through an account of a year in which she watched every single Bollywood film released in India’s National Capital Region. A journalist since 1994, she has worked with India Today, The Indian Express and Headlines Today. At HT she hosted her own interview show Star Trek which drew all India’s eminent entertainment personalities. While Anna has spent most of her career as a behind-the-scenes editorial person, she has also reported on most major Indian entertainment and lifestyle events and several international ones including Cannes and the Oscars, in addition to being the film critic for Headlines Today. She is currently reporting and writing for multiple publications on cinema and social issues with a focus on gender concerns. The Adventures of an Intrepid Film Critic is available on amazon.com, ebay.in, flipkart.com, ombooksinternational.com, ombooks.com, infibeam.com, homeshop18.com and dialabook.in among other websites, and in stores across India. Twitter: @annavetticad